Run a sub 45 minute 10K Training Program

Train on the sub 45 minute 10km program

Train to run a sub 45 minute 10K Training Program. In order to achieve this, you must be able to run below 4 minutes 30 seconds per kilometer for the distance.

Introducing paced running to your program is the main secret to the success of running faster over the 10k distance. You will need to either have a track available or you will need to measure out a 2K training circuit (preferably a loop course).

What we are looking at to start with, is being able to run 5Km’s in 4min 20sec per kilometer. This will give you an overall 5K time of 21:40. Added into your training will be sessions at this speed as well.

Your components now consist of running at 10K pace, running at 5K pace and then add to this a long run of 1Hr 30min and you are ready to progress towards your objective.

Now, the secret to your training should be to balance your training with your lifestyle. Your running must never become too much for you. You must always be able to do the sessions asked of you, if you miss a training session you can’t make it up. There is no going back to make up for what you have missed. Doing this is what normally leads to injuries.

T stands for 10K pace development L stands for 5K pace development R = Rest F is for Fartlek

Easy running is important for recovery and preparation before a harder day. Easy is at a pace where you are able to talk [“talk-test”] All quality sessions must be preceded with a warm up and stretching, and it is recommended that you warm down as well.

This is a 3 week cycle and after every 3 weeks you are able to run a race, up to 15K. It is not recommended that you use this program to race above 15k. If you have raced 21k’s before continue to do so, but do not look to this program to achieve great results, as your long runs in this program are not sufficient for a ‘great’ effort over 21K. After your race day, it is imperative that you use the next 3 days as recovery.

The 5K paced run, you should not run faster than 21:30 on these days. If you want to run a hard 5K then you must do so on the race day. Adhere to this advice for success with the program.

After 2-3 months on this program, it is recommended that you take a break from this schedule. The break should be for 2-3 weeks and during this time you should take a break from running for 3-4 days and then come back to running by building up to distance runs without any quality sessions [ The Off Training Period followed by The Build Up Period ]

Print out the program and fill in your comments and under ‘effort’ fill in your ‘perceived’ effort for each session. rate your effort from 1 to 5, with 5 the hardest and 1 the easiest. [This is NB] For Printable Program : Click here

Finally, this program is not recommended for a ‘beginner’ was has not got a background of running. It is recommended that you have a reasonable amount of ‘running’ without injury before attempting this program.

I started a little bit too soon with this schedule and have a few spare days untill race day.
What do you suggest is the best training prior to my 10K?
Interval or a longer but easier run? Thanks in advance.

the program works best to start day 1 on a Tuesday. If you racing on a Sunday then you can change to the following:

30 to 40 minutes easy
20 to 30 minutes easy running with last 10 minutes pace picked up slightly – 3 days before event
fartlek session 6 x 1 minute fast / slow as per program – 2 days before event
Rest day – day before race
Race Day

Hi Shiva, time on feet means simply getting the time out running on your feet, it is not at any particular pace to begin with but is aimed at getting you used to 90 minutes of continuous weight bearing .. hope this helps

Hi Aaron, the programs have been used successfully over a number of years however it is the individual who needs to find the balance if they are doing swimming, weight and cross-fit.
You may need to prioritise matters as to what is the most important aspect, enjoyment or results.
Good luck
TheEd

I have been running for many years now, without any plan but more for the pleasure of it. I have a time of 50min for the 10k and I would like to make to 45min. Will this 20 day program make it true? Or do you suggest a longer program, meaning 2 months training.

Hi Nuno, this session is either best on a tartan or grass track or on a measured route you use for all the sessions, a 1k loop x 2 would be great so that you can use it for the 1k session as well. During the Rest, you can stop to sip some water and take it easy before starting up with the next 2k. Please ask further questions if need be, or send an email to info @ time-to-run.com , if you would like to register for the forums and ask questions there .. see: Forums for our 10k Training Programs – http://www.time-to-run.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13
regards TheEd

I’d like to thank you for all the informations you put up on this website.

I’ve been running for 3 years but never attempted anything serious as far as training goes. I maybe ran 30 times in the last 3 years but have taken courses which quite likely helped me. (agility courses, plyo etc.). Since I doubt you can cut time by just not training! I’d like to improve my time for the 10K as it seems I should be able to get under 45 minutes with the right amount of training. PB is 48.

I’ll try this program out, but rest period isn’t something I was doing before, I was going all out everytime I ran which is great fun but not very effective. I read many articles and some forum posts and they were all interesting and helpful. Definitely helped me see how to lower the risk of injury and how doable it actually is with the easy runs to still run but not tire out.

In the long run I’d really like to go under 40 minutes and then try for some longer distances. I’m not in any rush to increase my distance though. I’d like to beat my 48 at the end of August. Next would be 45 in May I guess.

If possible, I’d like to join the forum since many stories were inspiring and great to follow. Especially Jamieh’s topic with the the ups and downs as one of my far away goal would be to just complete a triathlon someday.

Hello,
I’ve been following your progams for ages and they have always helped me in a big way so thank you very much for all the info and additional follow up advice.
I have a situation I hope you can help me with so I’ll give a quick bit of background first. I’m in my late 30s, reasonably fit (not by these forums standards though!) but carry a bit too much weight which I realise has put a bit of extra pressure on bones / muscles etc. I have snapped a hamstring (playing team sports, turning sprinting etc.) a couple of times in the last 7 or 8 years. The second time took a couple of years before I felt out of the woods enough to properly train for 10ks again, which suggests is probably healed badly.
I’ve been doing the programs for the last couple of months and am currently doing the sub 45 program (my recent best being around the 46/47 min mark) and I got midway through and did the 5k in about 22:20 as per the program. I felt fine afterwards but the next day my hamstring was aching like mad. I have started running gently again (10 days later) but wondered if I could substitute the faster days (days 3,8, 12) with something else and still improve my time. I find distance isn’t really a problem, the problems come when I up the pace. I enjoy stretching myself at a faster pace but can’t imagine snapping the hamstring again.
Sorry it’s so long winded but it’s better you have all the info.
Thanks,
Rob

I haven’t written anything here until now. I just wanted to let you know of yet another success story. I trained on the sub-50 program last fall to run a 48:39 in the spring, then moved to the sub-45 program and just ran 43:59 (!) this past weekend. I’m very pleased. I will now be shifting my focus to general fitness (a bit of weight training) before training for my first marathon in the late spring.

Thank you sincerely for this invaluable resource and for your impressive follow-up with those who have asked for advice. I have benefited immensely from “listening in” on your coaching tips.

I’ve read through a lot of the forum posts the past few days. I am really interested in registering an account.

Bit of background on me –

At high school I used to run track, just average nothing special; 400m (best around 50.5 sec) and 800m (best 2.01 min). After school rowed competitively and continued to run for fitness but never raced or built consistent aerobic capacity. In my twenties I tore my acl, had surgery and a couple of years later got chronic fatigue syndrome. Didn’t run at all after around 25y.o. In my thirties I had a lot of back problems, took a few years to sort out. Earlier this year I started running again, now at 41 y.o. First goal was to run 30 min non-stop. Took about 4-5 weeks to do that. Then was away on a trip for 6 weeks, no running. Came back in August and started again. After 4 weeks of training entered a local 10km race, ran last Sunday 14/9/14. My time was 45:30. My goal is to go sub 40 min – should I try the sub 45 min program first, or go to straight to the sub 40 min program? Currently running 6 times a week, comprising 4 easy runs 30-60 mins, 1 tempo run (3 x 5 mins @ 10km pace, 3 min easy), one long run (up to 90 mins). No pain or injuries running now. A little sore after the 10km, but a couple of days later no problems.

I’ve done the sub 50 programme last month, and had moved onto the sub 45 minute one, but got ill on day 15 and haven’t run since. I was going to try a little run today to see if it’s possible without losing the ability to breathe.

My 10k is on Sunday 16th Nov, so I was going to start the sub 45 programme again this week, or would I be best just doing the last two weeks of a programme and then starting again? There aren’t enough weeks left now to fit in two cycles, just one and a half, so I’m not sure what the best plan would be.

Nice programme though, I’m fairly sure that before I got ill I was getting a fair bit faster without spending more time training! Perfect scenario for me. Thanks.

Thank you first of all for all your tips and for this schedule that is very useful and keeps me motivated. I’ve just finished the first cycle and managed to get from 50:30 to 48:15 but I’d like to return back on my PB as fast as I can, hope this will help. I have two questions.

1. Any problem if I run 45 mins instead of 30 during my easy days at 6:00 – 6:30 pace? My muscles don’t protest this at the moment. Any risks in long period?

2. What am I supposed to do after the last 3 days of recovery after the race? Rest one day or two and then restart the cycle? Or should I restart it immediately?

nice going Florin .. start Day 1 again on the Tuesday . so tomorrow will be Thursday and the 2k session. In the 2nd cycle, stick to the same pace for the quality sessions and then in week 2 .. from Day 10, instead of running further time on feet, you can increase the pace

Hello Ed, I need your guidance in order to be able to follow this training routine effectively:
My personal best is 46:30 in the 10k and recently participated in a half-marathon achieving 1:51:40.
The problem is, I didn’t do much practicing in the past two months (after the half marathon).
The 10km race is in 3.5 months. Assuming that I’ll try this training program 3 times (2 months), how should I prepare myself for it taking into account my current status? Long runs?

Good Afternoon, going to start using your training plan for the sub 45min 10k. Have a personal goal here, my wife is an absolute machine (Natural talent) when it comes to running, she says she will always beat me 🙂 So now I’m training for household bragging rights 🙂

Current record:
Me (30-35 age range)
Started to put some mileage in from about mid year.(concentrating on Speed work)
Base 10K – 00:57:45
Close of 2014 10K (PB) – 00:49:04
Total Kilometers for 2014 – 810Km

Hello, hope all is well. I am very impressed by your site and just approach to helping people reach their potential.

I am 36, 178 pounds, and been fairly active in terms of working out, soccer bicycling but never actually ran a race until a local Christmas race this year which I ended up doing 44:44 seconds for a 10k.

I will joining a local tri-club and plan on doing a few 5k and 10ks in the spring along with a olympic tri in June.

I did a 4k trial run and did 17:40 seconds, but felt great and as if i had more in the tank.

I wanted to register, my goal is to brake under 40. Should I follow the sub 45 or sub 40 training program for my first cycle?

I’ve had sub-40min 10k as a goal for about 12 months now, and was getting close (PB over 10k is 41:25 from last year). Unfortunately I picked up a stress fracture and missed my target race. After 10 weeks off running (did some swimming and cycling) I’m now into week 5 of a 7 week return-to-running plan, and looking forward to training again towards my goals.

Question is – where to start? By the end of the return-to-running plan I’ll be running 5 days a week, 1 tempo run, long run 50mins and some strides. I’m not sure I’ll be ready to start with even the sub-45min plan at that stage. Do you have any advice on how to get into condition to start the plan? Also, if possible I would greatly appreciate a forum account as the advice you are giving people in the training threads looks fantastic.

Last couple of cycles I had 4 weeks between races where I only ran 1 quality run on those first weeks (a 2.4k time attack on the track) combining with some cross-training sessions, light runs, and weights.

I’m still not sure if this affected me at all, I was kinda able to pick up where I left off when the cycle restarted on the 2nd weeks, without any sign of sudden improvement or worsening. So I’ll just keep at it unless you suggest to me something else.

I am looking at doing this programme but can only fit 3 training sessions in a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I play local league football on a Saturday, would the programme still be successfully if I spaced the sessions out or would I be best to look for something different?
I currently run 10k in around 50 minutes but due to football commitments I’ve struggled to really improve this.

Hi,
thank you so much for the effort and knowledge you put in this website, for public use/
would it be possible to set an an account for the forum?
i run both half marathons (next in berlin 28.3.15), and 10 K,
looking to set a pr for 10 k of 45 , and half marathon of 1:40.
regards,
Yaron

Hi
Plan on starting this plan in a couple of weeks in time for my race. Current pb is 47.07
Quick question on the easy pace – can it be too easy? What sort of time per k or mile would you suggest as a good easy pace?
Thanks
Stu

I ran my first half marathon yesterday in 1h 40m . My personal best at a 10k race is 45min.I want to participate at a Half Marathon Race in May. I am thinking of using this program. I read somewhere that you can do this program for the half marathon by increasing your longest run “time on feet” to 2 hours. What do you think? My goal is to run the half Marathon under 1h 40m.

This looks like a great plan, I’m starting it tomorrow, I have signed up for a 10km series. 6 races, 3 weeks apart on Sundays. It seems that this is a 22 day training cycle with the race on day 19 followed by 3 easy days. So which day would you recommend I drop to make it a rolling 21 day cycle?

The program starts on a Tuesday Day 1 . it has race day on Day 18 , a Saturday. Then 2 days easy and the cycle starts on the Tuesday again. Look on the forums to see all the users on the program and their feedback. TheEd

Hi Graham, this is very much according to current fitness and ability. To start with, this is simply spending the time on your feet. As the person develops then we can look at pace and / or pulse. The person to start with, may break it down to walk breaks, for example. TheEd

Hi,
Great website and lots of information. Looking forward using the sub45 program.
Me 40yrs male, 1m80, 79kg but need to get down to 74ish. Starting sport about 4 years ago with >90kg, but had a break of almost of year due to ankle fracture. Now running >4 times a week gives sometimes ankle problems
PB last months have been 21m07 5k and 46m27 10k. Long time goal is to reach sub40 10k. If I had to take 2 rest days per week instead of 1, taking out the easiest workout would have the least impact I imagine?

I am hoping to start this program but need to work out how to fit it in to my schedule, I have two quick questions I was wondering if you could answer?

The first is the same as the gentleman above me, if I take one one of the easy 30min run days and replace it with a rest day (so running every week day, no running on weekends) will that completely ruin the training?

And secondly, does splitting the 30-40min easy runs into two 15-20min easy runs ruin the training? I cycle 4km to work and home and was wondering if I could just run to work and back as a replacement to the easy runs?

first off, doing a 4k time-trial to see where your natural level of fitness is, will help in setting up what pace you run the ‘speed’ sessions at.
see this link: http://www.time-to-run.com/training/10k/programtips.htm for tips on how to calculate your pace. If you require more, consider sending us an email to create an account on the forums for you http://www.time-to-run.com/forums
coming back to your questions: you can have a rest day, but note that Day 3 to Day 8 is important, especially the quality sessions.
As for splitting the session, you can consider stopping and stretching after 15-20 minutes before continuing, however the intention is to develop the long run, so be cautious as you develop. while adapting to the program, continue riding to work and fit in the rest day then, just remember the importance of the quality sessions between day 3 to 8. Day 5 long run is a quality session, so you need to work on that for the future
hope this helps TheEd

Thanks TheEd! I have sent you an email as you suggested about the forum account 🙂

I have adapted the schedule outlined here around a 4 day running week, I will post my adaptation on your forums if possible, would be interested in your thoughts!

Started this week with easy runs on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the 4k time trial today coming in with a time of 15:36, I used your formula to calculate my interval paces at:
2k intervals @ 4:00
1k intervals @ 3:50
400 intervals @ 3:40

Hi, in most situations, we have found 140 to 150 bpm to be the bpm for most. Try run at 140, as the easy runs are aimed at recovery. Your rule of thumb is that any run up to 1hr is normally 1 minute per k slower than current 10k race pace. As you get fitter, you will find your pace increases when running at 140bpm, and this shows true development. Hope this helps TheEd

Thank you for reply Ed !
I already run day 9 this morning so my question is whether next day could be rest followed by day 11 – easy 1h.
I don´t have problem with running easy runs but when it comes to running at pace day after easy run I feel somehow drained. Is it normal or should I cut some easy running ?
Just some stats and facts: I am 23y.o. 1.83m 79 kg, my PB for 10km is 45:50 and I ran three weeks ago 8km race in 35:59. My 5km PB is 21:20 so I guess that I am in shape to run this version of program… I am usually doing callisthenics on my REST days (pull ups, chin ups, dips – no squatting sice I started program). My easy runs are in 5:20/km (I am able to talk about GoT with friend at this pace 🙂

Hi Tom, the intention would be to use active recovery, also note that you have done the bulk of the training by Day 8, so thereafter recovery and adaptation is important, as you progress, you should find the adaptation better. If you have interest in joining the forums, send an email to info @ time-to-run.com with the username you want, and we will set-up an account for you. TheEd

Hi there, easy distance is where you cover the distance without the pressure of pace or heart rate. An easy run, is on feeling and what you perceive as easy. An easy day, the focus is on recovery for the day, so your run is aimed at achieving this.
Hope this all makes sense. TheEd

Hi ad,
I am reaching 55 years old and am able to do 10k in 50mins. With concern for my knee at my age I only do jogs or runs twice a week between 6 -10k. Is this program suitable for some one of my age to do a sub 45mins for a 10k run?

HI there, the program should be suitable but instead start off on the sub 50 minute program and slowly increase the pace and number of intervals before moving onto the sub 45 minute program. once you running 5k in 22.30, then you can consider doing the sub 45 minute program.
hope this helps TheEd

Great site. Thank you for providing your plans. They’re easy to follow and, for me at least, quite challenging.

I went through the plan once through. I failed Day 03 and day 08 workouts. Those paces are hard to maintain. However, I was only taking 1:00 breaks between. I was still able to hit a 22:00 5km but this was at full effort for Day 12. On Day 19 I ran a hilly 10km in 46:37 in moderate intensity. Admittedly, I could have pushed much harder and maybe hit 45 minutes, but I was just getting back from completing a triathlon, and a bacterial chest/sinus infection along with a round of antibiotics. Both 5km and 10km times are my seasonal bests since trying to come back from a serious injury (ruptured ligament in my right foot).

I am now working the plan again for the second cycle, but today I failed Day 03, again! I find it very difficult to sustain a 4:25/km pace for 2km regardless of the length of rest I took in between.

I should also say, I have to make adjustments to the plan to accommodate biking and swimming and hard HIIT sessions on the bike (heart rate zone 5 for 30 seconds, hard).

I’m wondering, since my 10km was 46:37, if I need to tough it out and do the plan for the second round to see my 10km results, or perhaps demote myself and do a different plan that isn’t so taxing on the body in order to train on the bike and swim?

Please read: http://www.time-to-run.com/training/10k/programtips.htm
from there you can work out the pace for your current fitness, while still maintaining the program structure. In the first x 3 cycles of using the program, I would not recommend cycling between day 3 to day 8, so as to adapt to the stress of the schedule on those days. Swimming should be fine. The rest between 2k and 1k is important, so don’t alter that, as you progress onto the next level the Rest will change. many thanks TheEd

Hi, Please could you advise me with this. I planning to Run !0K at the end of May and I would like to improve my previous time 0:47 to at least 0:45. I would like to follow you program but from my lifestyle – i can’t run everyday until the rest day or sometimes difficult to fit the running schedule around my other schedule.. I cycle to work and back 28km each way and have swimming as well once a week. Sometimes i don’t have enough energy to go straight for a fast run (if that what I suppose to follow,lets say) after a bike ride. What would you recommend and is my goal achievable? what do you think of improving the speed by running with some extra weight? Is that efficient? Thank you so much for your time in advance.